


The Devil and An Angel

by Ms_Julius



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 12:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17766584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ms_Julius/pseuds/Ms_Julius
Summary: The studio is in a desperate need of a new idea.Henry has already created Bendy, the little dancing demon. What could ever come to an even ground with him?





	The Devil and An Angel

The clock had ticked far past midnight at this point. Outside, one could see the faint glow of the streetlights attempting to illuminate the dark sidewalks, the autumn night offering a cold breeze of wind for those who still lingered outdoors.

Inside the studio, however, the lights were bright, and in addition to them there was a shrine of candles placed on top of a table. A long table, big enough in size to fit five people around it. Now, only two figures occupied the room, one of  them leaning over the table, hands planted on the wooden surface. The other was resting his weight against the far wall.

“It’s almost 3 am. already.”

The man by the wall sighed and ran a hand through his already messed hair. “I know, Henry.”

“I should have been at home six hours ago.”

The hand dropped down and ended up hanging loosely by his side. “I know.”

“And we’ve got nothing.”

Joey clenched his teeth, letting his head slump back against the plank wall behind. “Hmm.”

They had been at this a couple of weeks now. After official work hours, the two of them would retreat into the isolated parts of the studio, a good few feet below the ground level where only few spare meeting room had been build thus far. The construction had been but to hold, and was part of the reason why the two men spent their evenings lurking in the inner parts of the building.

“Do you think the bank might give us another loan if we asked politely?” Henry muttered, pressing the palm of his hand against his eye socket. “Although I really don’t fancy being the one to suggest that to Grant.”

Joey let out a quiet chuckle. “The man’s stress levels are rising alarmingly. A blow like that could be the death of him.” He ignored the way Henry glared at him and went on, “And even if you’d be brave enough, I don’t think he would allow us to go through with it.”

Henry sighed, leaning more heavily to the table and staring down at the empty sketch book in front of him. A white page had never made him feel anxious before, much less defiated. It has always been a plate of opportunities, a chance for him to create a piece out of thin air. Now it was a sour reminder of their prevalent problem, one to which he failed to see a solution.

The studio was running out of money, had been for a while. It was a devious development, the current of cash trickling down little by little until they found a month’s bills piling up on the corner of Joey’s desk. Grant had been hired soon after, with loaned money, and so began the struggle to pull the sinking workshop up from the slide. Expenses had been cut, shipments of equipment been cancelled, and slowly they were beginning to crawl out of the hole they had dug for themselves. But they needed something more. A new idea to bring the studio back to the game.

It just turned out to be more of a challenge than either one of them had anticipated.

“Perhaps another animal? Something to go along with Boris?” Henry asked, drawing a few experimental lines on the page. “A cat, maybe? Or a rabbit.” He outlined a small sketch of a cat with pointy ears and a wide grin. It was a rough model, and it never became anything more. Joey took one glance at it, sneered and pushed the paper away.

“Too blant.”

The pen hit the tabletop once again, Henry’s fingers going limp as he let out a long exhale. “Joey, we really do not have too much time to be picky at the moment. Having a new character, even if it is something as ordinary as a cat, is better than having none.” However, he didn’t pull the sketch back towards himself.

“Well, what is the point of even creating one if we’re not happy with it?” Joey muttered, already stepping up closer to the table and picking the pen back up. “You have to think bigger, Henry. Let your imagination fly.”

An old conversation, really. Joey had a tendency to try and add features to the cartoons which, frankly speaking, had no business being included in a form of entertainment meant to be innocent and joyful. Henry watched as Joey sketched out a form of a human, hands bigger than usual and a waist thinner than that of Bendy’s. Against his better judgement, Henry was intrigued. He bent forward, taking in the lines and the way the character was forming on the paper. An oval shaped head, slender body and long legs.

“What on earth are you drawing?” he finally asked, his expression curious. “Looks nothing like our usual cast.”

“Do you remember what you said when you brought me your first model of Bendy?” Joey suddenly said.

Now confused, Henry let his own question drop and answered after a while of thinking. “I told you it was a first sketch, I think. And that some more tweaking might be in order.” He scratched his head, trying to recall the exact conversation between them. “You said it looked fine, but made some changes anyway.”

“No, what did you say when you were _leaving_ my office?” Joey had turned to look at him fully. He was standing up a bit, a small smirk playing on his lips. “A little quip you made before you left?”

Ooh, he did remember! A small remark, made completely out of the joy of having his character accepted. He had felt like he was floating, and even now the sensation returned as he thought back to it. A grin appeared, and Henry found himself chuckling.

“Ah yeah. I told you I modeled him after you, personality-vise. That you are the reason he is called ‘dancing devil’.” He took a glance upwards and was pleased to see Joey joining in a silent snickering. “Even if Bendy certainly has a kinder look on him than you do.” The last bit was delivered with a teasing smirk, but there was a layer of fondness lying beneath it. He wasn’t sure if Joey noticed. He rarely did.

As expected, Joey merely rolled his eyes and continued to focus on his drawing. “Glad to see you have not completely forgotten our precious starting times, even though it took some reminding.” The playful tone was clear, and the grin was still firmly in place. “So, can you guess where I’m going with this, Henry?”

Honestly, it was hard to try and keep up with Joey’s mind. It had a habit of jumping from topic to topic in rapid speed, usually disregarding any vain attempts to follow his trains of thoughts. Even Henry, having spent a majority of his life with the man, had troubles when it came to Joey’s reasoning for time to time.

“To be perfectly truthful... No, I don’t.” He reached out and jokingly tapped his friend’s elbow with his fist. “But I have no doubt you’re gonna tell me.”

The pen was set down next to the notebook. “I sure am.” Joey ripped the page off, taking a final glance at it before turning it around, presenting it to Henry with a flourish hand gesture. “So, what do you think?”

It was a woman. Based on the body shape alone, it was clear that the character was a young-looking woman with large eyes, little mouth and a halo on top of her head. A dark wave of hair flowed down on her back.

To say he was surprised would be an understatement. “A female character, Joey?” he asked, taking a hold of the paper and bringing it closer to a clearer look. It was not Joey’s normal style, and one could see he was unused to drawing women features, but all and all it was a fine first sketch. “An angel too I see?”

“Alice Angel, _sent from above._ ” Joey beamed at him. Henry saw the way his hand was flapping by his side, his fingers tapping to the beat of his twitching leg. His friend was excited, and the longer Henry looked at the picture, the more it began to rub onto him as well. It could work. It might even be a success, a flash of something new in the industry. They’d be first to have a female character animated on the big screen, a sure trick to pull people to see it for themselves.

“I think this could be it,” he said aloud, offering a relieved smile when he returned the paper to Joey. “An angel to balance out our little demon. We sure could do a lot with that dynamic when we’re writing the scripts.” A sudden thought popped in his head as he watched Joey stare down at his own drawing. “But what does that have to do with the conversation we had in your office back in the days?”

The question seemed to rip Joey out of his daze. He blinked a few times, then turned around while placing the sketch safely on the table.

He was smiling too. A genuine smile, not one of those manic grins Henry had become a bit too familiar with lately.

“You thought of me when you created our little devil darling.” He averted his eyes for a moment. “It should only be fair to return the favor, wouldn’t you think?”

It took a second for Henry to realise what was being implied before it dawned on him, leaving him sitting in his chair with a set of wide eyes and an open mouth.

“You... Is she based on -”

“Yes.” Now Henry caught the sight of blush creeping on Joey’s cheeks despite the man’s attempt to place his hand on it as a cover. “Every demon needs an angel every now and then. It was time for Bendy to get his.”

A warm feeling of affection bloomed out in Henry’s chest. “Well, if you are certain...”

“I am,” Joey interrupted, a serious look back on his face. “She will be a fine fit. Lord knows the show need something like her by now.” His eyes darted downward again, the color on his cheeks growing slightly.

Henry didn’t push the matter. The implication of the last sentence didn’t go unnoticed for him.

“Very well then,” he said and pushed himself out of the chair by the table. Standing up to his full high, he stepped next to Joey, lifted the piece of paper back up from the desktop, and snatched up the pen as well. “But if this is going to be my embodiment, I think I have a right to make some additions to it.”

With a few quick sweeps of a granite, a pair of devil’s horns appeared on the head of the angel, sitting snugly between the ring of halo.

When he was done, he pushed the page back to Joey’s hand, smirking as he returned the pen on the table.

“I think this is more true to the original.”

The sound of Joey’s bubbling laughter echoed in the deserted hallways several minutes after.


End file.
